Maviance PLC , a Cameroon-based fintech, announced today that it has closed its Seed investment round of USD 3 million from the pan-African digital payments hub MFS Africa, which comes on board as a strategic investor. Maviance will use the new funding to increase its footprint in Cameroon and to expand into other countries in the central African economic region (CEMAC).   

Our CEO was invited by Florian Kandler to join his "Gründer + Zünder" Podcast to talk about how to go about B2B sales in startups and why it is so crucial to find your product-market-fit.

Scaling your sales is tough, but with proper preparation, a good pitch and a thorough conversation guide, you will be able to convert your leads into customers.

If you want to learn more about sales personalities, essentials to consider and what makes or breaks deals, listen to the newest podcast episode here:

Swiss utility Landis+Gyr has acquired 100% of the shares in our class 2 alumni startup Rhebo for a low double-digit million sum. Landis+Gyr announced this in a press release.

Million EXIT for IT startup Rhebo from Leipzig.

The Leipzig-based startup aims to ensure cybersecurity and stability of OT and IoT infrastructure in the industrial, energy and water sectors. To do so, Rhebo uses an innovative technology that enables real-time detection of cybersecurity threats and other anomalies in network control systems.

memoresa, one of SpinLab's alumni teams from class 10, secured a six-figure investment round: Ophthalmologist Dr. Felix Kiese joins memoresa with his investment company KFA. With his versatile experience and extensive network in the healthcare industry, we were thus able to gain not only a financial but also a strategic partner for the further development of memoresa.

What is it like to work for a startup?

LeipGlo organizes the series "Leipzig Career Hacks". In the third session of this series, SpinLab - The HHL Accelerator and Startup Mitteldeutschland will be part of it. At the online event we will talk to startups about what it's like to have a startup job and what open positions are currently advertised.

If you've ever thought about working at a startup, this is your chance to ask questions and get a personal impression!

In January, the SpinLab team once again welcomes ten new startups to the award-winning Accelerator program. Among them are names already well-known in the startup scene, such as Aivy, the personnel selection platform, or Oxford Immune Algorithmics, a spin-off of Oxford University, which uses artificial intelligence to deliver a solution for location-independent patient monitoring and testing. These ten new startups were selected in consultation with corporate partners during Selection Days in late November: Meshmerize, Aivy, PipePredict, INSONE, Advanced Infrastructure, minus CO2 by carbonauten, tenac.io, HY2CON, Oxford Immune Algorithmics, thinkers.ai.

97 startups participated at the Science4Life competition which awards the best business ideas in life sciences, chemistry and energy. The three best teams were PV2plus, innocept and DieEnergiekoppler, a SpinLab Alumni. They developed a new generation of virtual power stations which are used to connect small energy producers, storage devices and consumers to stabilize the energy supply and sell excess capacity.

Last week, BonVenture Group announced its investment in Myo, a SpinLab Alumni startup focussing on digital communications for the benefit of senior citizens in nursing homes. 

The Myosotis GmbH offers the first Software-as-a-Service solution for direct digital communication between caregivers, relatives and the ecosystem of service providers in nursing homes. The innovative app enables intuitive exchange through photos, videos, voice messages and video telephony. "We want to make the self-sacrificing and impressive nursing work visible and simplify administrative processes," says Jasper Böckel, founder and managing director of myo. This is the second major round of financing for the Digital Health Company founded in 2017. The nursing home operators Agaplesion and Carpe Diem as well as the venture capital funds Axel Springer, Plug & Play, Think Health, Mountain Partners and Round Hill Ventures, which have all been stakeholders already, invest another seven-digit amount in this round.

If you are interested in working at a startup, don't miss the chance and get to know us! Once again, SpinLab will join the Leipzig Glocal Job Fair at Werk 2 in Connewitz.
The job fair is for everyone who wants to work at an international-minded company. 

The digital health startup mementor GmbH and SpinLab Alumni has completed a financing round in the higher six-figure range. Seed investors include Smart Infrastructure Ventures and several business angels, among them former CFO of Spreadshirt and founder of smow Michael Petersen.

From left to right: Alexander Rötger, Jan Kühni, Noah Lorenz

mementor is one of the first providers of digital medical products in the field of sleep medicine. With its first product somnio, the startup has developed a scientifically based, digital solution for the treatment of sleep disorders that can be used on the smartphone. A clinical study of the University of Zurich proves the effectiveness of the product. In order to reach as many of the more than 5 million people affected in the German-speaking world as possible, mementor has entered into cooperation agreements with the largest health insurance companies in Germany (Techniker Krankenkasse) and Switzerland (CSS Versicherung), which already cover the costs of digital treatment for their policy holders.

"As Techniker Krankenkasse, we pursue the goal of offering our policyholders good and evaluated digital health products. With mementor, we found a competent partner at an early stage to address the issue of sleep disorders," explains Thomas Heilmann, head of the care management department at Techniker Krankenkasse.

With the fresh capital, mementor will primarily use it to promote the distribution and further development of the product. In addition, they intend a comprehensive assumption of costs by all health insurance companies. This is made possible by the new legal framework of the Digital Healthcare Act (DVG), which means that listed applications can be prescribed by doctors and psychotherapists. The digital sleep training from mementor is planned to be one of the first officially certified digital health treatments (DiGA).